Somalia

Somalia adopted a light blue flag in honour of the United Nations Organisation that had controlled
the country
until the independence. The star has 5 points - one for each branch of the Somalis: Issas of
Djibouti, Somalis of
Ethiopia, Issaks of Somaliland, Somalis of
old Italian Somalia and the Somalis of North Kenya .
Jaume Ollé 27 Jul 1999

The five points of the star on the Somali flag simply represents the previous colonial
area where the mostly Somali speaking people live and lived.
Mohamed Aden, 13 Sep 1999

I tried to find out whether there is some legal background of this flag
available on the internet, but without success. It seems that a draft new constitution
has been tabled but I was unable to locate the text on-line. I also tried to locate previous
legislation relating to the flag, but once again in vain. The previous 1979 constitution is
de facto
not valid, and apparently no-one quotes it on the internet. The flag is older
this as it dates from 1954. I was hoping to find at least a hint on how big the star should
be "de jure".

Looking the Somalian
government site, it seems they use the same Coat of Arms, without any changes as shown
in Smith [smi82], which is the original
1956 design. The site also shows the white-star-in-blue flag
nicely.
Željko Heimer, 20 Jan 2003

The front page of the Portuguese newspaper Público today shows a photo
by Ali Musa Abdi (of Agence France Presse) showing what seems to be a home-made
light assault vehicle covered in an interesting camouflage pattern and with what
seems to be a flag painted or pasted on the driver's door as shown below from
http://jornal.publico.clix.pt/Default.asp?.

image
sent by
António Martins-Tuválkin , 06 June 2006

image by
António Martins-Tuválkin , 06 June 2006

This is a medium or light blue ~1:2 rectangular panel with four small white
five-pointed regular stars pointing up at each corner and a larger one at top
center. This design attached.António Martins-Tuválkin , 06 June 2006

Željko Heimer complains that he has not found any
legal text on the flag of Somalia. He refers to the invalid 1979
Constitution, whose relevant articles are quoted by Pascal Vagnat & Jos
Poels in their book "Constitutions - What they tell us about national
flags and coats of arms" (SAVA, Dec 2004). The Constitution was adopted on 25 August
1979 and came into force in 1984.

Chapter I (General Principles), Section I (The Republic)
Article 2. Flag, emblem and the capital
1. The national flag shall be azure in colour, rectangular, and shall
have a white star with five equal points emblazoned in its centre.

2. The emblem of the Somali Democratic Republic shall be composed of an
azure escutcheon with a gold border and shall bear a silver
five-pointed star. The escutcheon surmounted by an embattlement with
five points in Moorish style, the two lateral points halved, shall be
borne by two leopards rampant in natural form facing each other,
resting on two lances crossing under the point of the escutcheon, with
two palm-leaves in natural form interlaced with a white ribbon.

Therefore, the scan of the coat of arms we show below is wrong
and Smith is right: the ribbon should be white and not yellow.
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2006

History of the flag

In 1949 the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) decided that Somalia would
be under the former colonial power (Italy) as a trusteeship territory for
ten years. There were three other governments who were members of the UN Commission that were sent to Somalia as
an advisory council
of the trusteeship administration of Somalia. They were Egypt, the Philippines
and Columbia. In April, 1950 the Italian trusteeship administration took
control of Somalia and the British military administration withdrew.
During the early months of 1954, a legislative council had been formed
by the Italian trusteeship administration and the advisory council of the UN. The members of the legislative council were composed Somalis,
Italians, Arabs and Indians. They had to prepare all laws and legislation
concerning the country for the ten years of trusteeship under the United
Nations. The members were not elected, but each political party, foreign
community or any other recognized organizations were asked to select members.

Mr. Mohammed Awale Liban had been selected by the Somali labour trade
union. Then members suggested the the Somalia national flag must be adopted
by the legislative council in order that the Somali people could get to know
their National Flag before independence. When the legislative
council agenda reached the discussion on the Somali National Flag, Mr. Liban proposed that only the
Somali members should discuss the issue. According to the legislative council's constitution each new proposal
had to be voted on by all the council members. Mr Liban proposal was adopted and
the Somali members of the council chose Mr. Sheik Omar to be Chairman. The temporary new chairman
said that the issue of the national flag would be debated the next day,
following which Mr. Liban went
home and started to design the Flag. He chose the blue colour to represent peace
and the UN
and placed a white 5-pointed star in the centre. Each point of the white star
was to
represent the five Somali regions which had been divided by the colonial
powers.

The next morning the council session started around 10:30. However, once the
chairman had opened the session Mr. Liban requested a chance to speak, which was
granted by the chairman. He stood up in
front of legislative council members and stretched out on his chest the
blue flag with a white star in the centre. As he kept on stretching the flag
across his chest, the Somali members applauded and cheered while
clapping for five minutes. The temporary chairman made a short
speech in which he acknowledged the ability of Mr. Liban whose
talent had produced such a beautiful flag less then 24 hours.

Mr. Mohammed Awale Liban said the blue color stands the United Nations
who help us to reach our dream of independence; white means peace and prosperity;
and the star is the five regions of the Somali people.
Faisal H. Jama, 08 Mar 2000

Garowe Online News, 25 June 2006 reports that
"Preparations for the celebration of the first day the national flag
rose on Somali soil are currently underway in Baidoa, the temporary hub
of Somalia's interim government.
Tomorrow, Monday, June 26, 2006, marks the 46th anniversary since the
first Somali flag was raised in the city of Hargeisa, after the
ex-British Protectorate of Somaliland gained independence from
European colonialism.
Interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf is scheduled to give the
keynote address in Baidoa to mark the anniversary of Somalia's Flag
Day, which will attract thousands of people and government personnel.
A similar celebration is also being prepared in Mogadishu, Somalia's
national Capital. This anniversary is special because the notorious
warlords have been expelled [from] Mogadishu and a semblance of law
and
order has returned."

The Flag Day in Somalia is therefore 26 June, celebrating the first
hoisting of the flag of the independent Republic of Somalia on 26 June
1960.
As it was the case in other African countries, the flag was adopted
before the independence, during the Italian trusteeship (1950-1960).
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2006

Coat of Arms

The coat of arms was adopted in 1956. The leopards which support
the shield and the white star were also found on the arms used during the
Italian administration.

And from Smith [smi80] (1980), with the same picture,
except the scroll is white instead of yellow:

The arms of Somalia of 8 June 1919 featured a shield divided
horizontally by a wavy white line. The top half of the shield was blue
with a leopard in natural colour surmounted by a white five-pointed star.
The present arms were adopted on 10 October 1956.

Ivan Sache, 13 Dec 1999

Željko Heimer complains that he has not found any
legal text on the flag of Somalia. He refers to the invalid 1979
Constitution, whose relevant articles are quoted by Pascal Vagnat & Jos
Poels in their book "Constitutions - What they tell us about national
flags and coats of arms" (SAVA, Dec 2004). The Constitution was adopted on 25 August
1979 and came into force in 1984.

Chapter I (General Principles), Section I (The Republic)
Article 2. Flag, emblem and the capital
1. The national flag shall be azure in colour, rectangular, and shall
have a white star with five equal points emblazoned in its centre.

2. The emblem of the Somali Democratic Republic shall be composed of an
azure escutcheon with a gold border and shall bear a silver
five-pointed star. The escutcheon surmounted by an embattlement with
five points in Moorish style, the two lateral points halved, shall be
borne by two leopards rampant in natural form facing each other,
resting on two lances crossing under the point of the escutcheon, with
two palm-leaves in natural form interlaced with a white ribbon.

Therefore, the scan of the coat of arms above is wrong
and Smith is right: the ribbon should be white and not yellow.
Ivan Sache, 26 June 2006

Roundel

image
by Željko Heimer, 20 Jan 2003

Album des Pavillon [pas94]shows the Somali roundel as a blue disc with a white five-pointed star,
the points of the star nearly touching the border of the disc.
This of course does not prove that there are still aircrafts showing
this roundel. Encyclopaedia Universalis Yearbook says: "Armed forces:
Tribal war since 1991."
Ivan Sache, 1 Feb 2002.

Dayuuradaha Xoogga Dalka Somaliyeed was formed in 1961 but is
is not active since 1991. [cos98] and
[whe86] report the roundel as appears above.
[cos98] also reports a fin flash used
by some of the planes as light blue vertical oriented rectangle charged
with a star at the upper left corner and wavy dark blue bar connecting
the right top corner with the lower left.
Some photos show the roundel also as fin flash though.
Dov Gutterman, 24 Jun 2004

Flag change?

Did the flag of Somalia undergo a flag change? I received 3 of these
VEX IV flag cards, and on one of these cards, it shows a flag of Somalia
which features the star in a triangle, set against a light blue background;
in addition, there are also 3 stripes consisting of green-white-orange.
Does this flag sound familiar, or is this is an older flag?
Russell Mah, 03 Nov 2003

I cannot identify the "star set in a triangle", but the green-white-orange
sounds very like the 1996 flag of the Somaliland
Republic (formerly British Somaliland and de facto independent)?
This is a vertical tricolour of green-white-red with a black star in the
centre and the Islamic statement of faith in white on the green stripe.
Christopher Southworth, 04 Nov 2003

The flag you describe sounds like that of the Somali
National Regional state flag, which is part of Ethiopia, and not to
be confused with Somalia.
Martin Grieve, 05 Nov 2003